Military base closures

There's been a lots of news in the past 24 hours of how locals and politicians are reacting to the base closures announced by the Pentagon. As would be expected there's a lot of whimpering and whining going along with the closures. Since New England is hardest hit, it's mostly Democrats doing the moaning. NewsMax reports on Joe Lieberman's reaction to the closures in his home state:

Sen. Joe Lieberman called the recommendation "irrational and irresponsible."

"It insults our history and endangers our future," said Lieberman, D-Conn. "It is right here in southeastern Connecticut where the heart and should of America's submarine force lives."

So sorry that military strategic interests insulted your history Joe, whatever that means. Chris Dodd is doing some whining over the closures as well, but even he admits it will be an uphill battle. Other Democrats were out complaining yesterday as well, including John Kerry:

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., condemned the proposal to close Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, says, "Otis is the number one base for homeland defense on the entire East Coast. ... It simply makes no sense to close Otis in the post 9/11 world."

Yeah, maybe if the primary objective of homeland defense is protecting the beach houses of New England's pseudo-aristocracy. Funny how a guy with who never met a cut in military spending he didn't like is suddenly preaching about homeland defense.

If you read today's paper you will find that John Kerry isn't the only new expert on defense strategy roaming the halls of our capital. Olympia Snowe, a Republican in campaign financing only, probably wins the price for the most idiot comment of the day:

"It is a travesty and a strategic blunder of epic proportions on the part of the Defense Department," the Republican said in a statement, vowing to visit each facility mentioned to help craft a strategy to prevent the proposed changes. "It is entirely beyond me as to the basis on which they made their recommendations, but it certainly wasn't logic or reason. Clearly, in arriving at these inexplicable decisions, the Defense Department and the Navy must have been operating in a fog so thick they couldn't even see the facts in front of them."

Nice hamfisted approach to winning them over Olympia. With diplomatic skills like hers I can't help but wonder how she will vote on the Bolton nomination. Insulting the intelligence of Navy and military brass is sure to win them over. By the way, which war college did Snowe attend again?

I am no military expert, so I have no idea what the strategic interests are behind these closings. I trust the people running our military to do what's right though; this is their profession and they know what's best. But I can appreciate the karmic justice angle of this story. Here we have a bunch of liberal states, represented by politicians who would bleed the defense budget dry if it meant one more welfare program, full of MoveOn.org-types who damn our soldiers daily, and they're just now discovering their love of all things military as the gravy train pulls away. Funny how that works out.